Question NW538 to the Minister of Sports, Arts and Culture”
02 September 2019 - NW538
Mhlongo, Mr TW to ask the Minister of Sports, Arts and Culture”
Whether he will provide Mr T W Mhlongo with a list of each development initiative funded by Athletics South Africa (ASA) in the past three years, including (a) the class or category of athletes who benefited, or who were intended to benefit, from each development initiative and (b) an indication of the amount spent by ASA on each development initiative; if so, what are the relevant details in each case? NW1533E
Reply:
- The ASA Board received a mandate from the ASA Council at the ASA QGM in 2016 to align the ASA Development Strategy, to achieve success at the Olympic Games, as its primary objectives.
- In this regard ASA has a National Development Strategy which is available on the ASA website http://www.athletics.org.za/centresofexcellence.
- Athletics is a labour intensive sport which requires substantial resources to engage large quantities of athletes, coaches, officials and administrators at all levels of participation.
- With the above in mind, the ASA Development Programme is an all-inclusive programme.
- Effectively, this means that ASA have to fund expenses related to international competitions, national competitions and skills development projects to level the playing field ensure that athletes from all communities has access to athletics.
- The strategy to fund all phases of development, are paying dividends for South Africa. The following is relevant:
6.1 To ensure that South African athletes are exposed to international competitions at youth, junior and senior level, ASA cover all expenses of all athletes in the team, e.g. clothing, travel, accommodation and per diems for the duration of the championships.
6.2 The ASA Youth Team is currently listed no.1 in the world on the medal tally
6.3 The ASA Junior Team is currently listed no.6 in the world on the medal tally
6.4 The ASA Senior Team is currently listed no.3 in the world on the medal tally
7. ASA is one of a few countries in the world that send representative teams to all IAAF World Championships, and CAA African Championships at youth, junior and senior level.
8. ASA cater for all disciplines of athletics, Track and Field, Road Running, Off-Road Running and ultra-distance. Most countries in the world cater for only some of the disciplines in athletics.
9. ASA Coaches serve as head coaches in countries such as Germany, India and many African Countries.
10. ASA National Coaches are used as facilitators/instructors in coaching courses by many countries in the world
11. ASA Technical Officials serve as Referees and Chief Judges in many international competitions.
12. ASA Leaders and Administrators are serving on many structures at African and IAAF level
13. Many countries in the world are now seeking guidance from ASA as to how to develop athletics in their countries
14. Many countries send their athletes to participate in South African events, and/or send them to training camps in South Africa to prepare for the Olympic Games
15. ASA have Squads of more than 300 athletes at senior, junior and youth level in preparation for the 2020 Olympic Games and 2024 Olympic Games
16. ASA expose annually, more than 2 000 000 athletes at the various levels of competitions to a network of more than 1500 IAAF/ASA certified competitions. Collectively, the ASA Development Programme is one of the largest, and one of the most effective programmes in the world.
|
Class or category |
Summary of amount spent by ASA: 2017 – 2019 |
|||
|
2017 |
2018 |
2019 |
Total |
||
|
International events |
Youth, junior and senior |
3,035,364 |
5,548,643 |
2,887,882 |
11,471,889 |
|
National and provincial events |
Youth, junior and senior |
3,384,983 |
3,080,247 |
2,232,364 |
8,697,594 |
|
Skills development |
National Symposiums/ Workshops for Athletes, Coaches, Officials, Administrators and educational material |
2,303,293 |
2,393,780 |
2,056,780 |
6,753,853 |
|
Total |
26,923,336 |